Sundance
by Arashi Uzumaki-Namikaze
Summary: Better summary in ch1. Lora, the daughter of the Blue Sage meets a mute boy named Jak and his Ottsel friend Daxter shortly after her father disappears. Legend has it that it was Keira Hagai that stood beside Jak in his hour of need. But legends often overlook the simple facts-and that the one that never left Jak's side ultimately saved him. Jak/OC, Precursor Legacy storyline.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: In one universe, Jak and Daxter complete their quest and defeat Gol and Maia by themselves, never meeting another Channeler like Jak who can Channel every Eco. In another, however, five and a half years before Jak comes to Sandover, a girl is born to Janos Azure and his wife who closely resembles a mix of her parents, right down to their Channeling talent. A girl who grows up with only one best friend, Aconite, and who discovers one day that her father's been kidnapped with a destroyed lab to show for it. And then a mute boy and his Ottsel show up in Rock Village, and her life changes forever.**

 **Her name is Lora Azure, and this is her story.**

 **A/N: This is my first attempt at a Jak/OC story after reading the scarce few there are in this fandom. I also really wanted to explore the possibility of another Sage having a child. I played the Jak games growing up and I always thought it was unfair that Keira was stuck at home and not allowed to go on the adventure. While Jak/OC is the endgame pairing, Jak/Keira is there in a lot of this story because Keira has a crush on Jak, as we all know from the first game, and I'm following game canon up to this point (sort of) so the crush is reciprocated.**

 **I do not own Jak and Daxter or the world they live in. I just own the idea and Lora.**

 **Special thanks to novelpetals for pointing out the way DocX uploaded this story-apparently it was in html format and I had no idea, since it appears normally for the author.**

 **Chapter One: Lora, Meet Jak (And Daxter)**

* * *

A month. Thirty-one days. 744 hours. She could go on, but timing it just made things sound worse.

A whole month since her father had been kidnapped right out of his lab.

Since she had come home to find the door locked and barricaded, the Warp Gate's fuel lines torn to pieces and his notes strewn everywhere. Like he'd been in a fight. And not a small fight either, but a really big one. Lora was no fool. Her father was missing and with the evidence there, someone had taken him. Someone had kidnapped him, someone strong enough to overpower even a Sage, and only a day after he'd disappeared that Lurker had started throwing flaming boulders at the village, not just the mountain pass. It knew he was gone, and was taking advantage of things.

The whole thing smelled of a nasty setup.

Without her dad around, Rock Village was all but defenseless against the thing since the Hero couldn't defeat it. It was by pure dumb luck the Lurker hadn't noticed the machine they'd built, with the way it'd barricaded itself up in the mountain pass. But she didn't have the Power Cells to turn on the machine, or give herself a chance against the monster, so that wasn't a possibility.

Not that the villagers would let her use it anyway. Most of them had fled when her father was kidnapped, moving into the old settlement in Boggy Swamp, where they reasoned the only danger came from Bog Rats, which even 'normal folk' could defend against. And the Swamp wasn't without its own dangers, including poisonous ooze that could kill you if you stood in it for too long, but they reasoned it was safer than staying, even if there was no way for them to destroy the Rats' nests without Eco. Safer than braving giant, Dark Eco-corrupted Lurkers.

The settlement in the Swamp wouldn't protect them for long, though. She'd seen a Lurker blimp hovering over the area, but had been unable to convince the Gladiator to move the pontoons for her so she could get to the Swamp. Her dad had forbade him from sending her into battle without backup, and the Gladiator wouldn't count her friend Aconite as backup-even if she were here, but her parents had kidnapped her and forced her to go to the swamp with them.

Besides, Aconite was a great friend, but she couldn't fight. She couldn't even throw a decent punch, even with all of Lora's help and some training. Aconite hated hurting anyone or anything, even Lurkers. She'd probably get them both killed if they went up against that Lurker anyway.

But with the Warp Gate out of commission, and no Power Cells to move the boulder blocking the mountain pass, Lora could see how the Swamp was becoming more and more appealing to the villagers. While there was a constant Lurker threat, it wasn't the same thing as having a 'nutty scientist Channeler,' as she'd heard them call her more than once, around. At least with her father they had a protector, both from Lora's 'mad experiments' and the Lurkers. Never mind that her experiments were tamer than her dad's by far.

With the Lurkers and lack of the Blue Sage, the villagers reasoned they would be well-prepared for the dangers of the Swamp and wouldn't have to rely on Channelers for protection. Most Channelers didn't make people uneasy. Then again, most Channelers also didn't Channel multiple types of Eco. That skill was all but unheard of, and the fact that Lora could made most people wary, if not outright scared of her. Without her father there, those old fears about a Channeler running wild returned among the older generation. Sure, old wives' tales about Channelers running wild were told to every kid growing up but not every Channeler acted that way. There had only been a few.

By now, Lora was used to the sneers and the stares, and how they ignored her every time she asked for help, but it still stung. She _wasn't_ what they thought she was-whatever that was at this point, either some mad scientist or a Channeler with too much power. She just wished they would actually open their eyes and look at _her_ for once. Even the people her own age often made her feel like an outsider, as the only real Channeler in the village other than Aconite.

Which meant there was no one to help her fix the Warp Gate, the only other way out of the village other than the Fire Canyon.

Her dad had done enough damage to make it almost impossible for her to fix it. It was impossible without the help of another Channeler, at least, and all of the ones she knew of were in the South, near Sandover-the Green Sage's village. From what her dad's journal said, the Green Sage kept his Warp Gate turned on, but she couldn't get to him to warn him of the danger. Whatever it'd been, it had to come through the Warp Gate-there was no other way into or out of the lab that hadn't been locked.

And with luck, if she could only _get_ to the Green Sage, he might have the Power Cells needed to help her take out this Lurker. Samos always irritated her dad, enough so that he didn't really get along with the other Elf, but he was too fond of 'meddling,' which might be exactly what she needed right now.

Though she had had experience killing Dark Eco tainted Lurkers, she couldn't actually get up there to fight the darn thing. When the Hero tried to fight it, her dad kept her from going to fight it as backup, to keep her safe. She knew why Janos didn't want her to fight, because unlike the Hero Lora had no hope of winning with her strength alone. But she knew she could find a weakness in the Lurker's body if she just got up there, and it irritated her. It almost felt like her dad didn't trust her, didn't trust that she could protect herself and wasn't just a little girl anymore.

It was a moot point anyway, with her dad gone. Janos took all of his Power Cells with him, the Power Cells she'd need to get up there or to power her Zoomer to get through Fire Canyon with a specialized, super-powered heat shield. And all of the cooling balloons she'd need to get through the canyon without her specialized heat shield were gone too.

So Lora was stuck, unable to do anything to help save her home, her friends, stuck as they were in the swamp, or her dad.

She'd managed to put together Janos' notes about how to fix the Warp Gate if it were ever broken, but she couldn't fix the pipes feeding it without the supplies. And those were out in the Lost Precursor City, where she'd been banned from visiting since she nearly fell into fatally hot water while exploring there at the age of seven. Since the Hero was still in the village, he'd stop her-he'd promised her father to keep her safe when Janos disappeared.

That left Lora with only one option, even if she hated it. Taking apart the Zoomer transport platform and some of her father's experimental machines that ran on Blue Eco, which she'd sworn to him never to do.

But what choice did she have?

Just as she turned to the transport platform to take a much closer look, to find the parts she would need to mend the Warp Gate, she heard the unmistakable sound of a Zoomer revving towards her. She glanced over her shoulder and immediately ran for the ledge nearby, knowing the standard Zoomer couldn't make that jump unless boosted with extra Power Cells.

And it sounded like the driver was going to overshoot the landing platform.

She'd barely made it onto the ledge when the Zoomer started slowing down, and Lora held her breath, not daring to glance back over her shoulder at the driver until she heard its engine power down. Then she turned around, looking at the Zoomer pilot, and the communicator swiveling around his head. It looked a lot like the communicator she'd built as a kid, except it was green and a little larger than hers needed to be.

 _"Now, make sure you turn on the Warp Gate in the Blue Sage's house,"_ instructed a female voice from the communicator, which was hovering around his left side. _"So we can get through to help."_

Then it disappeared into a pocket, folding itself up neatly as Lora took in the pilot of the Zoomer.

It was a boy, no-a teenager, who was only a little taller than her, with short green hair that had faded near the tips to blonde and which stuck up in a strange sort of windswept style-like the wind was still in the process of sweeping it up. Either way, it was a little odd, like her hair. He was wearing a blue tunic with no sleeves, a bit of silver metal armor (definitely not Precursor armor), and shoes that were more like wrappings around his feet, leaving his toes exposed, like leather sandals. More leather was wrapped around his waist (a belt of some kind) and his shins, and beneath it he was obviously wearing a loose, cotton set of slightly dusty white shirt and pants. He pulled off his goggles, putting them back on his forehead as he looked up at her.

Sitting on his right shoulder, the only one covered in a shoulder-guard, was an…Ottsel?

Why was there an Ottsel on his shoulder? Why did the Ottsel have leather gloves and goggles on, like the Elf it was riding?

"Anyone ever tell you staring is rude, Whitey?" And it talked, too!

It also sounded like the most sarcastic thing she'd ever heard speak. And knowing Aconite, that was saying something.

An Ottsel that could talk. Lora frowned, staring right back at him, knowing something was definitely off when the Elf looked up at her. He gave her this sort of apologetic smile and made a few quick gestures in the Ottsel's direction, but she was only half-paying attention, staring at his eyes. No one else she knew had eyes like that. Even from here she could see they were blue, which was almost impossible to see on other Elves when they were looking a different way. But Elves' eyes only glowed when they were Channeling and there was no obvious Eco around him.

Then again, Elves sometimes had…odd and vivid eye colors, like her own. She'd just never seen another one so outlandish. Maybe it meant he was a Channeler, like her.

He turned to look up at Lora, revealing that his eyes were gray-blue, almost like Blue Eco itself. She couldn't help but stare, now that she could see proof of his Channeling gifts. Green, Blue, and Red Eco danced around his head, shining through him, with the barest hint of Yellow licking over his hands, and it was bright, brighter than she'd ever seen, except by looking in a mirror.

"Hey! I said it, and I meant it! Quit the staring, it's creepy!" yelled the Ottsel, getting her attention again.

She smiled back apologetically, the spell broken "Sorry. It's not every day you see anyone new around here," she jumped down off the ledge, making it so they were more of a height with each other. "And quit calling me Whitey. Just because my hair's white doesn't mean it isn't rude."

The Ottsel snorted "Not like I can call you anything else, you know. I don't know your name, now, do I? Nor does my buddy Jak here!"

"So your name is Jak?" Lora asked, ignoring the Ottsel and the other Elf nodded. Why wasn't he speaking? "Nice to meet you, Jak. I take it he's a friend of yours?" she gestured to the Ottsel and Jak rewarded her with an innocent, warm smile and a nod.

"The name's Daxter, and don't you forget it!" Daxter huffed, sounding annoyed. "Honestly. It's ridiculous. All the pretty girls ignore me and look at you, Jak, even when I'm fuzzy! Who are you, anyway?" Jak glanced at his friend with a frown.

"Lora," she said, holding out her hand, which Jak shook. "It's nice to meet you too, Daxter."

Far be it from her to decide what an Ottsel could and couldn't do. Experiments with Eco or something might've caused him to act like this.

"Nice to meet ya, Whitey," he grinned "See Jak? Some people do still treat me like an Elf," he said triumphantly, after shaking her hand.

AN ELF?! How the hell had he been an Elf once? Lora stared at him, stunned as she felt the crackling of Dark Eco around his form. He'd been an Elf, and then...Dark Eco had done something to him. But that didn't make sense; how could Dark Eco turn someone into an Ottsel? Unless…unless only one of Daxter's parents was a Channeler…

Jak twitched a little, raising an eyebrow and twirling one finger around before gesturing at the ground, and forming a fist with his left hand before driving it into his right gently, still looking at Daxter.

"Oh, right," Daxter said, "I know. I meant strangers."

That explained why he didn't talk to her. Jak couldn't speak. Given that he hadn't made a single noise that meant the Ottsel on his shoulder was his interpreter. Daxter had probably been doing that for him for a long time, if they were as close as they seemed to be. Body language wasn't hard to read, but there were subtle signals he probably used that Daxter had known for a long time. The gestures didn't make sense to her, aside from the swirly finger that was the universal symbol for crazy.

"Still treat you like an Elf?" Lora echoed, wanting a confirmation of what she could see.

"Yeah," Daxter said, smiling "See, I actually used to be an Elf, but we got into this mess on Misty Island down near Sandover, and I got thrown into a pool of Dark Eco. I lived, didn't get fried or anything," he spread his arms "But I'm now two feet tall, and covered in fuzz! We are on a quest to get North, to visit Gol Acheron, the Dark Eco Sage. He can change me back."

It sounded unbelievable, so unbelievable that she had no choice _but_ to believe them. Why would Daxter lie about something like this? Jak didn't seem to be an accomplished liar, either; his face was open, and when she met his eyes again he gave her a sheepish smile and nodded.

"Well, much as I'd like to help, we have a problem," she said, jumping up onto the ledge near the Zoomer. Jak quickly followed her, "The Blue Sage is missing."

"Missing?" Daxter asked, and Jak's eyebrows went up, an expression of shock covering his face. "Why? How?"

"Yes, missing," said Lora, biting her tongue before she said too much. "I don't know why, or how, just-follow me, okay?" she didn't bother waiting for an answer, pushing on ahead.

She could tell they wouldn't believe her until they could see her dad's lab for themselves, and it wasn't like she wanted to explain here where all Lurkers could hear. On the off chance they actually tried to get to the village, she needed to be closer to her dad's lab.

"Hey, wait!" shouted Daxter, as Jak caught up to her "How do you know he's missing? And why would that be a problem?" Jak looked at her directly as they ran, his expression one that clearly said 'talk,' and Lora gestured ahead of them.

"He disappeared about a month back," Lora explained, as they came to a beach and a few rock formations, the tops of which were covered in grass.

The stone bridges between them had been broken when the first attack came, causing an earthquake that literally shook them to pieces and left behind this jumping zone, which dissuaded most people, even kids, from playing around here. Most people didn't try to leave the village this way anyway, because it was cut off by Fire Canyon, but some adventurous Elves had, in the past, run a trade route through here that led through Fire Canyon between Rock Village and Sandover.

"Come on, you need to see his lab to understand what I mean," she called over her shoulder, jumping from grass-covered platform to platform easily.

It didn't do much for someone trained by the Hero personally, though someone else might have had difficulty. Lora was impressed that Jak was able to keep up so easily, though; most people had to roll before jumping or use a rope of some kind to get across. Once they got to the top, she crossed the bridge leading to her dad's lab and their house. The minute they walked in, Lora stepped back and to the side, letting Jak and Daxter take in the destruction themselves.

"Holy son of a _yakkow_!" cried Daxter "What the _heck_ happened here?!"

The lab was in a much better condition than it had been when her dad first disappeared, since Lora had cleaned it up some, but Blue Eco still sparked out of one of his machines, in a steady drip-drip-drip to the floor. It wasn't powerful enough for her to Channel into anything useful, or to cause a fire or short out the machine, but it did make it a little harder for her to clean things up. She'd managed to reroute or cut off the flows of Blue Eco to the broken pieces her dad had put together, keeping the batteries he charged every storm from running themselves dry, but not all of them. That particular one just dripped a little bit of Eco, which was much less dangerous than, say, exploding. The lab's equipment also wasn't smoking anymore, after the tinkering she'd done. A line of machines, controlling the rest of the Blue Eco-powered equipment in the lab, was against the far wall, with a three-foot-long, half-inch thick piece of Precursor metal with rough edges embedded inside it. The same machine was the one that was dripping Eco out of one of the holes.

Smaller pieces of Precursor metal were stuck in the walls and in fissures in the ceiling and floor, except where the high ceiling was missing. Each of the pieces was thick, and half-embedded to the point that Lora wasn't sure she could get them out, even with Red Eco, without a lot of tinkering to even make a machine to get her up there. Her dad's notebook was bound and sitting on a table, as his desk had been blown apart into something vaguely resembling tiny woodchips and splinters in the fight. The windows had been sort of fixed since then, as did the door mechanism, but the window to their left still had a piece of the Warp Gate's power channel stuck inside it, shearing right through the glass and sticking out for about half a foot on either side, shaped like some kind of strange trapezoid.

All in all, the lab still looked wrecked, though that was only after she had fixed everything she could. If she hadn't, the building would probably have blown apart because of the built-up Blue Eco inside of it.

"I don't know," Lora replied, wincing as her voice cracked. "I came home one day and found the door jammed shut, with the windows blown out. I-"

"Wait, wait, wait, What?!" yelped Daxter, stopping her in her tracks. "Home?! You live with the Blue Sage? Just who the heck are you, anyway?" Jak just stared at her, raising an eyebrow with an expression of incredulity on his face.

Right, she'd completely forgotten about that. Everyone in the village knew who she was, but Jak wasn't from the village, and neither was Daxter, so they didn't know. Lora felt her cheeks warm as she realized how much she'd missed explaining, just because she was focused on the problem.

"Probably should've led with that," she said, smiling sheepishly "Sorry. Yeah, I do. He's my dad. I'm Lora, the daughter of the Blue Sage."

Daxter gaped "Your _dad_? Great. Another annoying old Sage with a kid." Jak gave Daxter a light swat "Ow! Jak!" Jak frowned at Daxter in a way that said 'quit it,' pretty clearly, and Lora would've snickered if she wasn't offended.

Her dad was in no way an annoying old Sage!

"You know, I'm going to pretend you didn't just insult my dad, and help you out anyway," said Lora calmly. Jak gave her an apologetic smile, and she continued "It took me a few hours to get the Eco mechanism for the door working again, and when I got in I found Dad's notes strewn everywhere, and the lab almost completely destroyed. Including the Warp Gate."

"That's not possible!" protested Daxter, and Jak stared at her, visibly shocked. "No one has the power to destroy a Warp Gate-besides, it's still working, isn't it?" He gestured at the powered-down Warp Gate, which seemed intact.

Lora shook her head "No, it's not. Dad tore the power tubes right out of the ground," she gestured at the fissures in the floor, half-filled with sharp Precursor metal. "I still don't know how he did it, but he managed to tear them apart completely. I can't turn it on at all, now. He used to just keep it deactivated, something about this crazy nutjob who owned one of the portals and might try something…" she shrugged "But he never said the guy's name."

Jak and Daxter were now staring, open-mouthed at the fissures in the floor. They looked utterly shocked at what'd happened here, and she didn't blame them. At first, she'd been shocked too-unable to believe that her dad might have managed to literally tear the tubes apart. Lora had a theory about how he did it. Somehow, overloading the pipes with Blue Eco during his fight her dad had managed to force the pieces to vibrate themselves apart, pushing Eco through the tiny cracks that created in most Precursor metal. Not even the Red Sage could've made them fly around the lab like that-but her dad could, and had, all with Blue Eco.

Jak knelt down next to one of the pieces, a large shred that had once been a part of the floor but was now sticking out at an odd angle with a sharp, triangular edge. He reached out to trace the ragged edge of the metal with a fingertip, but hissed sharply and drew back. Lora started, surprised to hear him making a sound-she'd thought he couldn't make any sounds at all. Maybe he just couldn't speak, like forming words wasn't natural for him, but he could still make sounds?

But then that begged the question, why hadn't he been taught to speak by his parents? Did he have parents? Why was he so closely connected to the Green Sage?

"Jak, pull out your communicator again; we've got to talk to old Green," said Daxter, as Jak tried and failed to move one of the smaller Precursor metal pieces, hissing again as he cut his hand on it for a second time. "Jak! Look-do you have Green Eco somewhere around here?" Daxter asked, turning to Lora.

Lora pulled out a small vial of it she kept on her at all times, "Jak, come over here please," she requested. Jak gave the Precursor metal a troubled glance, and walked over to her. "I can't move it either, not without using Red Eco. It's too heavy for just one person, but you're right; we need to get these pieces out of the floor, or we can't fix the Warp Gate."

Jak accepted the tiny cluster of Green Eco with a nod, letting it soak in through his skin. The cuts healed over almost immediately, and shortly afterward she re-corked the lid on the vial, putting it back into her shirt. Jak pulled out the folded communicator, and reactivated it with the touch of a button. The glow of Green Eco flared a little brighter around him, while Blue and Red faded just a little bit as she watched. Then he pulled out the communicator and turned it back on, letting it hover around them.

 _"Jak, Daxter, is that you? Has something gone wrong on your end?"_ Lora didn't recognize the aged voice coming through the communicator/

It wasn't the girl's voice that had come out of the communicator earlier, and it wasn't anyone else's she knew, either. That meant it was probably the Green Sage.

Daxter spoke up "Uh, yeah, something has gone wrong here, but we made a new friend, so maybe she can help us fix it."

 _"A new friend?"_ the Green Sage asked, wary _"Who? Is he there right now?"_ Jak frowned at the communicator, but said nothing. _"What happened?"_

"I'm actually a girl," said Lora, and she heard him pause, probably embarrassed. "I'm Lora, the Blue Sage's daughter."

 _"I never knew Janos had a daughter,"_ mused the Green Sage, _"What happened over there?"_

"My dad's gone missing with all his Power Cells," said Lora, "He was kidnapped; and judging from the state of the lab he put up a really big fight. I don't know how he did it, but he wrecked the power tubes to the Warp Gate somehow," she had the feeling she knew how he did it, but didn't say. "He blasted them apart, probably threw them at whoever or whatever kidnapped him. I've gotten some of them out, but there are still fragments of Precursor metal in the walls, ceiling, and floor."

The only answer she got was an impressed whistle, followed by the Green Sage speaking; _"I had thought it was impossible to overload Precursor Metal with Eco, but if anyone could figure out how to do it, it would be him. How long ago was it that he went missing?"_

"It's been about a month," said Lora quietly, swallowing hard as she tried to push the thoughts out of her head. "I don't-I don't know what happened, just that the only way out of here is locked and I've been trying to get word to you for weeks. Without Power Cells I couldn't make it through Fire Canyon."

 _"Why?"_ asked the Green Sage.

Lora cleared her throat "Because whoever got to my Dad probably came through the Warp Gate. The door was jammed shut and no Channeler lives in this village who also has enough strength and experience to overpower him. He kept his Warp Gate deactivated because of some guy he really didn't like, who also had a Warp Gate."

The Green Sage chuckled _"Janos and Blanc never got along. The Yellow Sage has a Warp Gate as well, and he is possibly the most insulting old man you will ever meet. I don't think he gets along with_ _anyone_. _"_

Lora shook her head "No, that's not who he was talking about. Dad complained about the Yellow Sage sometimes, but he never lied or said anything really negative about him. The last time I asked him about it, he mentioned something about a false Sage trying to take the position of a real one. Apparently a good friend of his made him promise to keep the Gate deactivated unless he absolutely had to activate it for something. He seemed really angry with the 'false Sage,' whoever that is."

There was a pause, and she glanced at Jak, who was looking at her with a curious, bird-like expression on his face, almost like he wanted to know what to make of her. He looked kinda cute like that, honestly. Daxter just looked confused.

 _"Well then, I will keep an eye on my Warp Gate, but we need to be able to get to Rock Village to study the Blue Sage's notes and use the Transporter pads there. While the Warp Gates might be unsafe, I'm sure Rock Village could use the help."_

As much as she hated to admit it, they could.

 _"Do you know any place with Precursor metal that you can use to fix this?"_ The Green Sage asked her.

Lora cleared her throat "I need someone who can Channel Red Eco while I'm Channeling Blue, to be able to lift these pieces out of the floor and ceiling. I have some Red Eco crystals on me, but most of the pieces I haven't managed to move are at weird angles, or are unsafe to move because of how sharp they are. It's safer to try and shift them with Red and Blue Eco working together instead of just one, or else I'd have torn my hands to shreds trying to move them. Or, if possible, I need someone who can Link with me while we both Channel to move these things safely, because I can't Channel that much Eco while staying in control of it."

She was still surprised that her dad had had that Eco capacity.

Even Channelers could die of Eco poisoning; it just took them one hell of a lot longer than normal Elves, since their tolerance for Eco was much, much higher. Sages could as well, it was just even _harder_ for them. The fact that her dad had such a high Eco capacity as to tear apart Precursor metal and then use the torn pieces of metal as _thrown weapons_ was amazing.

 _"Right. Jak is a Channeler, so he should be able to help you,"_ said the Green Sage. _"Jak, help her repair the Warp Gate-it's the only way we can get to the Rock Village to help you! Lora, I will shut down the Warp Gate until you three call again, with the Blue Sage's Warp Gate fixed. I'm afraid I can't send you any Red Eco, though."_

Lora frowned "The real problem will be finding the materials to repair the channels. My dad messed them up so badly I'm not sure we have enough to repair them, even with the place I'm thinking of. I could try fusing them together with Blue Eco, but it's going to take me at least a week to fix it all. Do you have any Power Cells?"

 _"Jak has at least twenty-five, but they're in the Zoomer right now,"_ said the girl's voice from before. _"I'm Keira. The Green Sage, Samos, is my dad. Nice to, er, meet you, Lora."_

"Nice to meet you too, Keira," said Lora, trying not to start bouncing her foot up and down. She hated 'meeting' someone over communicator-it gave her no sense of what he or she was like or what the other Elf could do. "I'm good with machines; I should be able to get them out without damaging it."

They had Power Cells. Enough to fuel her Dad's machine if they found a few more! Enough to get that Lurker away from the mountain pass and free the village!

She knew the villagers that had left for the Swamp settlement had scattered the Power Cells they still had in the Swamp, but the ones that stayed still had Power Cells. They were the people who didn't blame her dad for disappearing-even if one of them was a guy who lived in a barrel, since losing his pants to a bet with Aconite, and one was the guy who'd trained her. The Hero wouldn't give her the Power Cells if he thought she was going to do something dangerous, but they were desperate, and she was sure her dad would forgive him for it.

 _"Then I'll leave you to it! Can you use the transport pad if you fix one of your Dad's machines?"_ Keira asked with an almost-audible grin. _"If so, you can work on the Zoomer there!"_

"I should be able to fix up Dad's transport machine," said Lora, glancing at the rerouted Eco pipes leading into the control panel on the far side of the lab. "But that means a lot more work here, and I'm not sure I can. I'll do my best, but our priority is fixing the Warp Gate."

 _"As it should be. We'll check back in tonight,"_ said Samos, _"To check on your progress."_

Then the communicator folded back up as it slid into Jak's pocket, leaving the three of them standing in a messy lab.

Daxter was the first to speak "You seriously think you can fix that?" he gestured at the Warp Gate, and Lora looked at the destruction again. "The tubing's been blown to smithereens! Besides, we need some grub before we try anything. Last time we ate was this morning!"

She didn't think she could fix it. Lora doubted she would ever really understand how to jury-rig a portal like the Precursors had done so easily with the Warp Gates, but she had to try. For some reason, she knew she had more of a chance than anyone else would at fixing this, but she didn't know why.

And like her Dad said, the only way to really fail at something was to never try it in the first place.

"I've been studying this thing for a month, to try and find a way for the villagers to get out of our village safely," said Lora, taking a deep breath. "I've got to try. But first, we need to get the Zoomer back here, which means fixing the transport machine. Daxter, I'm going to need you to help me reach some of the smaller spaces, to look at where the Eco flow-channels were broken. Jak, do you have any Eco crystals on you?"

Jak nodded, turning his head so he was looking through his pockets and not at her. He pulled out a total of five Eco crystals; three were Red, one was Blue, and one was Green. It was enough to pull the Precursor metal out of the transport machine, or at least she hoped it was.

Lora grinned "All right! We can get started after we get some food. Don't worry; I've been working on a way to get food in the lab without making a mess, but for now we should go upstairs."

She pressed in the slightly-glowing section of the wall next to her, and a moving platform with the Blue Eco symbol came down to meet them. She jumped on, and after a moment of staring at her (or the platform, she wasn't sure which), so did Jak.

They had to stand within two feet of each other, or else one of them risked falling, and while Lora could survive a fall that far without hurting herself, with her training, she wasn't sure Jak and Daxter could. Jak was very, very close to her though, and now that they were close it was almost impossible for her not to look at him. It was that or look down and potentially unbalance the platform.

And he was kinda cute, she realized as she got a much closer look at him. Adorably so but in that way that said he would probably be even cuter as an adult. His face was boyish, lacking the edge most people had that said he'd seen a lot of the world, but his eyes were strangely intense. Standing so near him, she could also smell him; he smelled of pine, the ocean, and something else she couldn't quite place, but it was…strangely warm and reminded her of home and safety.

Lora took a deep breath of that, and her cheeks warmed a little as she realized he was standing within a foot of her, not within two feet. She jumped off the platform to the ledge as soon as it came into sight, and Jak joined her, looking around the upper levels of the Blue Sage's house.

The upper levels of the house were divided into two bedrooms, a shared bathroom with a full bathtub that was rarely used (in favor of swimming, the rain, and Eco, all of which cleaned you up just as well as a regular bath), a kitchen, and a sort-of living area with several different contraptions in it, including a few comfortable chairs and a small table, all designed with varying shades of blue and a little red and green to accent it. There were also a few cushions, since Lora and Janos liked sitting on cushions while tinkering with something small that could be taken out of the lab safely.

"Wash your hands," Lora directed them to the sink, and Daxter gave her a disbelieving look. She raised an eyebrow "I'm serious. I have no idea what you've been touching and you don't want to eat crystallized lava or Fire Canyon ash, do you?" she asked.

"Heck no!" yelped Daxter, racing for the tap and turning on the water.

To her surprise, he made it there only half a second before Jak did. Lora hid a smile as she got to work, turning on the stovetop's power with a spark of Blue Eco to set it afire. It didn't take long for her to bring the stew she'd made earlier to a boil, as Jak and Daxter finished washing their hands and joined her. Lora pulled down a few large bowls, and a few cups as well, filling each with clean, fresh water. She handed the smallest cup to Daxter, and one to Jak.

"The food's hot," she warned, putting a rubber-handled ladle into the stew.

"Mm-mm!" Daxter said with a grin "This smells good!" Lora flushed a little at the compliment and ladled up three steaming bowls, gesturing for the boys to join her at the small table in their living area.

Daxter, predictably, was the first to taste it "Whoa!" yelped the Ottsel, staring at the food; Jak tensed, and Lora did too, looking around for the Lurker that was inevitably behind her. But there wasn't one. "This is really good. Jak, you gotta try this stuff! It's awesome!"

Lora just stared at her stew, trying not to feel embarrassed. Her cooking couldn't possibly be that good, could it? Her dad had always loved it but that was because he was her dad. He had to compliment it; besides, he couldn't cook to save his life. Literally. He'd probably killed his own taste buds while being forced to eat his own cooking for all those years before he'd met her mother, whoever-whoever that had been.

The last time Lora tried to teach Janos to cook, it had ended with him nearly burning their house down around their ears. She still wasn't sure how he managed to set fire to water, but he managed it. After that they'd agreed she would cook and he would do the dishes every night, since she wasn't nearly as likely to set everything on fire.

Jak took one bite of the stew, and his eyes went wide, chewing and swallowing. The last thing she expected was a quiet, happy noise to escape his lips and he gave her a grin and a thumbs-up, and Lora turned her attention to her food. The three of them all but devoured the stew in silence; Jak got up and returned to the table twice, clearly starving, and Lora couldn't blame him. She did the same thing, given how much Eco she had Channeled today to move even one of the pieces out of the floor. They'd need the energy.

It was only after they'd finished eating that Daxter piped up again "Why is your hair white? I mean, you're not really old, are you?"

Lora glanced at Jak, who rolled his eyes, glancing at Daxter in annoyance "No, I'm seventeen," she replied. "My dad's hair's been white since he was a kid. It's natural."

Daxter snorted "Right. Just like Old Green always had white hair." Lora frowned; why was he disrespecting the Green Sage, anyway? Did he just disrespect everyone? "So, what's it like here? Please tell me it's not as boring as Sandover. It was so boring there. Only thing that made it tolerable was my boy Jak, here!"

Lora glanced back at Jak, who lifted a shoulder and shrugged, looking sheepish, and then he nodded. So until recently they probably hadn't had much to do. Sounded a lot like her, really. Up until a few months ago she hadn't had much to do that wasn't pulling Aconite out of trouble or getting them both into it.

Lora cleared her throat "Well, my dad's a scientist, not just a Sage, and he's been running experiments with Blue Eco since I was a kid. The most exciting thing around here was working in his garage, which we can't access right now. I grew up running around his lab, always underfoot-he said I nearly gave him a heart attack when I grabbed one of the Blue Eco Crystals for the first time," she offered, smiling.

"Really? How old were ya when you started Channeling?" asked Daxter.

Lora shrugged "I'm not sure. Dad isn't either. Pretty sure I was Channeling Green Eco as a baby, and Blue Eco too. I know I did Blue Eco. I reactivated one of Dad's old experiments and rebuilt it from the ground up as a kid, and let it loose on Dad's workshop when he wasn't paying attention. Boy was he mad when he found out that it was a rebuilt Eco cannon," she snickered at the memory. "He was so worried I'd managed to shoot myself with it that he didn't look at what it was doing until it'd wrecked half the lab. I was grounded for three weeks for sneaking into his lab without permission."

Daxter grinned, elbowing Jak in the side "Sounds like my buddy Jak here! We used to mess around in Keira's garage before she got really mad at us, and booted us outta there."

Jak frowned at Daxter, one eyebrow twitching, and poked his head, before twirling his fingers around in a gesture Lora didn't understand. It was almost like a figure eight only it had three circles, not two.

"Fine, fine, okay, it was mostly me because I just about broke Keira's Zoomer, but still," grumbled Daxter. "She made Jak fix the Zoomer after I broke it. Something about never trusting me with electronics again."

Lora snorted "So he's bad with them, I take it?" she directed at Jak, who seemed surprised at the direct question.

He nodded, miming an explosion after pointing at Daxter.

Daxter scowled "I'm not that bad! Sheesh, managing to blow up two Zoomers in a row wasn't my fault, and you know it. A Lurker messed with the second one, and you know why I had the problem with the first one."

Jak just made this sort of noiseless chuckle, shaking his head at Daxter, and Lora grinned.

"I crashed my Zoomer five times before I figured out how to take turns without sailing wider than I meant to," Lora said with a grin. "Dad couldn't keep me off them if he tried. I love flying and I love flying fast. After the third time I crashed it, while Channeling Blue Eco to give it a speed boost, he made me promise to keep some Green Eco Crystals on hand in case it happened again."

And it had. Several times. Mostly because she was trying out the challenges in the Precursor Basin, and was also trying to do flips and other acrobatic moves on the Zoomer, but it was a little ridiculous, really. Her dad had finally sat her down for an explanation, and then given her over to the Hero to give her lessons in gymnastics and martial arts when he caught her trying to vault off of her Zoomer.

Jak made a noise that sounded like a chuckle, visibly startling Daxter, the sound echoing through the hut. Lora froze, because she'd thought Jak couldn't talk or chuckle, obviously he could make some sounds. Now Jak's shoulders were shaking, and he was grinning as he chuckled, really chuckled instead of noiselessly, and Lora felt herself grinning. It was a nice sound, if a little hoarse, like he didn't do it often.

"Whoa," said Daxter, as Jak's chuckling died down. "I don't think he's ever chuckled before. You know, Whitey, I'm really starting to like you. This might be the start of a great friendship."

"It's Lora," said Lora, getting up to clear away their dishes to the sink, "Not Whitey." To herself, she added; _I hope so_.

Jak and Daxter were pulling on their gloves when she turned around. It was time to get to work.

She'd managed to get Jak to laugh, and hopefully, she'd made two new friends tonight. Today she'd met two people who did more for her than anyone but Aconite ever had, and maybe, just maybe they'd want to stay friends after this, too. Daxter certainly seemed interested.

Both of them took a running leap for the platform, and as they landed Jak stumbled, running into her. Lora planted her feet hard and grabbed both of his hands to keep him from staggering back, turning to give him an apologetic smile. Jak flashed one in return, and her heart leapt. Then Daxter scampered back up onto his shoulder to scold both of them. Yep, she had two new friends. Today was turning out much better than she'd thought it would be.

* * *

 **Just so you know, Lora's never had a crush before or felt that way for anyone. I figure she has to be hit over the head with it. Lots of people are oblivious to crushes and Lora's got no experience with one so she's doubly so.**

Ages and lifespan for reference:

Lora: 17 years old (she's half a year older than Jak)  
Jak: 16 years old  
Daxter: 16 years old (2 months younger than Jak, 1 month older than Keira)  
Keira: 16 years old (3 months younger than Jak, 1 month younger than Daxter)  
Samos: Unsure, but we know he made the transformation to Sage early if he had green hair beforehand (if that thing you see in Jak 2 (Renegade) is his hair).

Sages' Ages: This story assumes all Sages live a very long time due to their advanced exposure to Eco. However, certain things (say, coming back to life with Green Eco or something like it after nearly/actually dying, or transforming into a Sage late in life) will definitely shorten your natural lifespan.

In the Precursor Legacy era, Elves' natural lifespan is ~200, give or take a few years, and they come of age at 17. Jak's a little young but Samos doesn't know that, because for the purposes of this story he isn't sure when Jak's birthday is. (Jak's adopted, he looks 17 so he is in Samos' mind).

Elves' lifespans in the Jak II-III storyline (and I suppose Jak X) era are about 150 years, if they're lucky. A lot of them die early because of Metal-Heads, too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Summary: The Blue Sage totally wrecked his lab. To get to the workshop and have any way of fixing ANYTHING, Jak and Lora have fix the lift, first. Which, given exactly what Janos did to the lab, is not going to be easy…but Jak, Daxter, and Lora don't really have a choice.**

 **This chapter is from Jak's perspective. As I said, endgame is Jak/Lora, but currently, for this part (until Jak starts really NOTICING Lora), the pairing is Jak/Keira (which is one-sided, for now) and a bit of Lora/Jak (one-sided). They're still teenagers; that, and they're not as mature as Usagi and Naruto from my _Naruto/Sailor Moon_ crossover story. **

**Chapter Two: The Blue Sage's Workshop**

Jak wasn't quite sure what to make of Lora. She was completely unlike most of the residents of Sandover, with her intelligence (and whoa, he'd never met anyone who could do what she could) and how hesitant her smiles were. She reminded him the most of Keira of everyone he'd met, but unlike Keira, Lora didn't seem to have many friends.

At least Keira was popular with the other kids, if a bit weird, as the only mechanic in the village.

But Lora seemed lonely to him. Lonelier than anyone he'd ever met, including Daxter and Samos. Daxter had him, and Samos at the very least had the other Sages. Lora didn't even have that. He didn't like that; she was rapidly becoming his friend, and he knew Dax approved of her because unlike so many people his age back home, she didn't treat him like he was different just because he couldn't speak.

She was grinning the whole way down to the Blue Sage's room, even if it was seemingly to herself.

How many friends did she have? Did she have any? He knew Lora had to have at least one friend like Daxter, given the way she responded to Dax's teasing. It wasn't quite like she was used to it, but maybe she couldn't tell Dax didn't mean any harm by it?

That, or she didn't feel comfortable enough with the Elf-turned-Ottsel to respond to Daxter's teasing yet. It took Jak awhile to figure out that Dax meant well, and hopefully she'd see that soon enough too.

Lora cleared her throat "So, our first step is to get into Dad's workshop," she said, gesturing to the controls, which had a foot-long piece of the Warp Gate's fuel line sticking out of it. Or, well, a half-pipe of it, since it was sharp and ragged along the edges.

Jak was a little nervous about eventually meeting the Blue Sage. The Sage was impressive, managing to blow apart this Precursor metal like it was butter to a hot knife, and from the looks of things the Sage had some really powerful enemies. He was probably a good Elf at heart, but without meeting him it was really hard to tell.

Jak thought back to Misty Island, remembering the two Dark Elves as they floated in the air, above the Lurkers on the island. Those two, whoever they were, had tried to kill him and Daxter using the corrupted Lurkers even if they didn't know. If those Elves were the ones that kidnapped Lora's dad, then that meant they were definitely working towards the same goal.

Hopefully they could get some kind of clue as to what happened down in the Blue Sage's workshop.

To Jak, the machine looked like a mess of sparking wires and openings for Eco that he couldn't really make sense of, but Lora seemed to know what she was doing as she knelt down next to an opening. The opening was twisted and a little smaller than would fit an Elf, half of it sheared away by the Precursor metal that had hit it at high speeds.

There was also a strange stain on the floor next to the machine, which at second glance proved to be blood, though it had a weird blue component to it.

He didn't want to know whose blood that was, not considering that Samos' blood was speckled with green due to his exposure to Green Eco.

"This is the maintenance hatch for the lift Dad installed, in case of a mechanical accident," explained Lora. "But it got twisted up in the fight, so an Elf can't fit in here anymore," Jak knelt down next to her, and Daxter hopped down off his shoulder for a better look. "Daxter might be able to, though. He's small enough."

He winced, looking at the damage to the main structure. There was a mass of wires covering a third of the old entrance, at least, and a small shard or two of the Warp Gate's metal sticking out of both sides. They were smaller than the foot-long piece of metal, but each of them was bigger around than Jak's whole hand, and the edges looked sharp enough to shear his fingers off with a little more than a slight touch.

Mercifully, the Eco he could feel from the maintenance hatch wasn't moving through this section. Yet. He had no idea what this was _supposed_ to look like, but he didn't want Daxter or Lora going in there, not without knowing a little more about it first.

Jak turned to Lora, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to ask _'What do we do about it?'_

To his surprise, she understood him perfectly this time. He'd have to get Dax to ask her how she did it. She'd picked up on it more quickly than he expected. Maybe she was just good at noticing intent.

"Before I can figure out how to fix it," she explained "I need someone to go in and take a look at what's been broken. You and I can't fit down there, Jak, but Daxter can." Jak hesitated, and Lora asked "Have you ever redirected Eco with your senses, but from a distance?"

Surprised, he nodded. Jak had found that he could do that shortly after Daxter got him stung by a ton of Wumpbees on his ninth birthday. He'd arced a line of Blue Eco around himself from the distant clusters to make them go away. Why did that matter now?

Lora's expression lightened a little "Good. I need you to help me redirect the Eco inside the machine away from Daxter." Daxter, who felt just a little bit like the Dark Eco that had clung to him since he was turned into an Ottsel. "I can track Daxter using the Dark Eco still touching him. Can you?"

Jak nodded again, understanding what she had in mind. Dax clearly hadn't thought it through yet, but there was no way they could pull the metal out of the machine yet, not without hurting someone or possibly blowing her home up. Neither of which were things he wanted to contemplate.

That being said, the damage might be too great to fix.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the phone!" yelped Daxter, jumping up to get their attention "You want _me_ , to go in _there_? Where I might get fried by Eco? Jak, buddy, you're not serious, are you?"

But they had no choice, did they?

Jak looked at Daxter, using a series of minute gestures to explain; _'you're small and you're the only one that can. Please, Dax?'_ He ended it with a pleading look Daxter's way, knowing it would convince him.

Daxter was the only person he would use that face with, since he was sick of being called cute and childish, for his height and his "baby-face." But it always, always worked; he got his way every time he used it.

"Oh, _fine_ ," huffed Daxter, and Jak grinned, glancing at Lora, who was looking at him in-disbelief, he thought, and her dark cheeks were slightly redder than usual. "But you better keep that Eco off me, both of ya!"

Lora seemed to snap out of it, shaking her head with a smile "Sure thing, Daxter." Jak nodded. "Just tell me how much is damaged, and where it is, when you crawl in. The shards in this part should be easy to remove, with some help, but if Dad managed to scatter more pieces inside the machine it'll be a lot harder to fix."

"Sure thing," said Daxter, huffing "And when I get my tail singed by Blue Eco, I'm gonna blame the two of you!" he called, crawling forward into the gap in the machine on all fours, and Jak rolled his eyes.

Lora immediately pressed her hand against the side of the machine and closed her eyes, her forehead furrowing a little in concentration. Jak joined her, tracking Daxter's progress through the machine and the locations of the Eco.

"You won't, trust me," called Lora, and Jak could feel her starting to shift the Eco out of Daxter's path.

He followed suit, pulling the draining Eco near Daxter back into the machine, surprised at how easily it followed his directions. He only had to tug at it a bit to make it move now; as a kid it'd been a lot harder.

Maybe he was getting better at this whole Channeling thing. Then again, it was being asked to move, and Lora was helping so, maybe, this was what Samos meant when he said Channeling was easier when someone else was there.

Maybe this was what it felt like to have two Channelers working instead of one.

"Daxter," Lora's soft voice almost interrupted Jak's concentration, and he barely caught a lightning-bolt of Blue Eco before it singed Daxter's tail. "I need you to look for the silver pipes that hold Blue Eco. You should see four large silver pipes, all of them glowing blue; ignore the smaller ones unless they're really damaged. They won't explode. We need to disrupt the broken ones."

"Sure, I see a bunch of metal pipes!" called back Daxter, "But not the ones you're talking- _oh_ , you mean those big things that I could probably stick my arm down?"

"Those ones," called back Lora, "But don't you dare! That much Blue Eco will give you the worst case of Eco Poisoning you've ever had if it doesn't kill you first!" Daxter snorted.

"It's not like I'm gonna stick my hand down there!" shouted back Daxter, making Jak snicker. "I hear you snickering out there, Jak. Just because I was an idiot who touched a Blue Eco cluster as a kid, doesn't mean I'm gonna do it this time!"

Lora glanced at Jak, mouthing 'seriously' at him, and Jak nodded, smiling at the memory. Daxter hadn't been seriously hurt, but he'd received a very stern lecture from Samos, who'd advised him to try _Red_ Eco if he was going to use any kind of Eco at all, since he had a slight affinity for it.

"Okay, how many of them are broken?" Lora called back.

Daxter sounded nervous "The metal's sheared through two of the pipes! The ones on the left, so they're closer to you. The third one from the left's bent, but not busted. Whoa! Looks like there's some Eco leak around this metal. How long did you say this had been here?"

Jak saw Lora's skin pale, turning it nearly the same color as his "A month. Daxter, how much Eco," she stopped. "Jak, can you hold back the Eco on your own? I need you to hold it until I can feel how much Eco is charging that Precursor metal."

Jak nodded; he wasn't as good with Blue Eco as she was, given that she was the Blue Sage's daughter, and she understood the machines better, too. He felt the Blue Eco starting to press against his control as he felt it surge away from Daxter and towards him, calling it backwards through the pipes and holding it away from the metal.

It was much, much harder without her helping him. Lora had her eyes closed, when he glanced at her, and her expression was fierce, full of concentration as she moved her left hand to rest beside her right, next to Jak's on the metal. The Eco felt like a river pressing against a dam, trying to flow over and through Jak to make it through the pipes, but he didn't let it go.

If he did, he'd kill Dax with Eco poisoning. And Jak absolutely refused to do that.

Lora opened her eyes "Well, that answers that," she shifted her arms a little and suddenly the pressure eased again, as her concentration returned to the Eco flows in the pipe. "Okay, that piece should be easy to move. The problem is redirecting the Eco flows. Daxter, how much looks really badly damaged from down there?!" she called "And how bent is the third one? Can you see a spark or break anywhere?"

"Lucky for you," called back Daxter, "It doesn't look like much else is broken! A lotta wires are cut, and a few pieces of the metal are in the opening, but the machine seems pretty good other than the big piece! I can't see any Eco leak from the bent one."

"Good," called back Lora, "There's something else I'm going to try, but I need you to wiggle away from the piping to do it. Stay low and away from the third pipe and anything it connects to." Jak stared at her, surprised and a little troubled "If there's Eco leaking, we need to know. If I try to turn this on and there's Eco leaking into the pipes, I'll blow it up."

Jak nodded; he understood her logic, but he didn't like it. Lora didn't look like she liked it either.

"Hey, I heard that, Lora!" called back Daxter. "Jak, buddy, we don't need this place blowin' up, and you owe me big time for this one Lore!"

"Lore?" called Lora, a note of laughter in her voice. "Yeah, I owe you for this, Daxter. Now do as I say and get back from the Eco piping!"

Jak didn't hear anything, even as he moved to help Lora fine-tune what she could hold back of the Eco. Moments later, he felt one of the pipes let the Eco flow, but the flow was-slowed, somehow. He glanced at Lora, only to see what looked like Blue Eco running into her body, charging her up like a battery.

"Tell me what you see!" shouted Lora, "and do it quick! I can't do this for long!" sweat was beading on her forehead as the lightning-like Eco surrounded her in a bright blue aura intermittently.

Was she-Channeling the Eco _through_ her, first, to slow it down? That was dangerous. Samos would have had a conniption if he saw her doing this. But she was the Blue Sage's daughter, and she was clearly as strong a Channeler as Jak was, so she could handle it for a short period of time. That didn't mean he liked it.

It was bad enough knowing how much it burned by the end of all of his attempts to Channel it. Jak had to work really, really hard to use it as it was meant to, and using this much Eco was a lot more than Jak had ever worked with all at one time.

"There's no leak!" called Daxter "Not that I can see, at least!" And then "Whoa!" Lora's skin was starting to glow with the Eco flowing through her, now that Jak was really looking "I see a little bit of it leaking! Just barely, outta the very edge!"

Lora gasped, and the Blue Eco faded around her, leaving her leaning heavily against the machine. Jak felt her join him in holding the Eco back, gritting her teeth despite the obvious toll it was taking on her.

"Come back Daxter!" called Lora, "Jak and I can't keep doing this!" or she couldn't; she was really tired, from the looks of it.

Moments later, Daxter wiggled his way out of the machine, and Jak breathed a sigh of relief as he let the Eco start flowing again. Lora pulled back sharply, surprising him with the amount of energy she suddenly had, and then grimaced, touching one hand to her forehead. He moved toward her, about to offer some help, but she shook her head.

"Oh, great," grumbled the white-haired Elf. "Jak, Daxter, I'm probably going to end up hyper-focused in a minute. Try not to freak out if I can't hear you."

"Hear?" Daxter spoke up "What do you mean?"

Lora swallowed, "Blue Eco charges me up, even though it's hard to control all that energy. I get it from my Dad. So if I can't hear you, or it takes you a little while to get me off this subject, don't freak out; it's called a hyper-focus and it happens to me a lot when I Channel Blue Eco."

Jak raised both eyebrows, glancing at Daxter worriedly; Daxter translated "Does it hurt?"

"No, just leaves me very focused on what I'm doing, and not really aware of the world around me. I may need to be reminded to eat later," said Lora, glancing at the machine with a frown. "Jak, we need your Red Eco Crystals." She quickly pulled out several Eco Crystals, half-Red and half-Yellow. "My friend Aconite gave these to me, before she had to leave the village. She's naturally able to Channel Red and Yellow Eco, but Blue makes her sick, and Green doesn't do much for her."

Jak nodded, pulling out his three Red Eco Crystals.

"Each of these Crystals is a rechargeable amount of Eco, but they're limited in how much you can use from them at any one time, minus Green Eco because those are much more stable," she explained. "Daxter, I need you to spot us."

"Spot?" Daxter asked, glancing at Jak and then Lora "I don't know what that means."

"The Precursor metal is charged, so we need someone to keep an eye on us while we move it, make sure we're not damaging things or that it's not going to just try and shoot around the lab when we get it out, since it'll be really energized." Explained Lora, "Can you do that?"

She was talking faster, Jak noticed, and her eyes kept flickering to the machine and back to the boys. Was this what she meant by a hyper-focus? She could problem-solve this entire task but wouldn't think to get out of what she was doing until later?

If so, it seemed useful, if a little scary. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but it didn't seem to be hurting her. It might be dangerous in a fight, but not-there was a creak and Lora snapped around, moving faster than Jak thought an Elf could without Blue Eco to face the door. After a little investigation, Jak deduced it was just the house creaking, and after a moment Lora seemed ready to believe that, turning back around.

"I can do that, no problem!" said Daxter with a grin "So what do you need me to do, exactly?"

"Make sure it isn't going to fly around here," she ticked off with her fingers "make sure we aren't about to tear the machine completely apart, because while I can fix it, it will take me all night, and make sure neither one of us is too tired to keep going."

Daxter grinned "So what, I'm just supposed to watch while you do the heavy lifting? Sounds like my kinda job!" Lora chuckled quietly, before turning to Jak.

"You want to Channel as little Red Eco as you need to help me move this," she said, as Jak put his hand on the first Red Eco Crystal. "Just charge yourself up as much as you need. I don't want you passing out on me from Eco poisoning."

Jak raised both eyebrows at her and palmed two of his Red Eco Crystals, staring right at her and tilting his head to the side. _'And what about you?'_

Lora understood again, right before Daxter opened his mouth to verbalize the question for her. "I'll be fine, Jak. The Blue Eco won't hurt me. The problem will be keeping the machine from exploding at the same time as we move this. I'm going to Channel the Blue Eco in the machine directly, and-well, I can sometimes Channel two at once, but it's probably not a good idea right now." Jak shook his head vehemently, because he didn't want to see her on the ground from Eco Poisoning "Blue Eco doesn't enhance my strength, but it does give me access to as much energy as I can naturally produce at one time, and that should be enough."

Jak frowned at her, disliking the idea, but he had no way of dissuading her. From the look in her violet eyes (an odd color by themselves, but that was probably Sage genetics) she was going to do this, no matter what the consequences were. He knew that look; he'd seen it in the mirror enough times to know what it meant. She wouldn't stop until she was done, no matter how dangerous it was for her.

"Okay, ready?" she asked, placing her fingertip on the piece of Precursor metal. Her hair flared out and up like she'd just stuck her finger in a light socket as she gasped, her eyes flashing with blue lightning as the Eco surged through her.

Jak's own vision tinted red as he Channeled the Red Eco in his hand into his body, using as much of the Crystals' power as he dared, then slipped both under his wristbands. He nodded to her, grabbing onto the half-pipe piece that had blown into the system on one of its blunt edges. There was no Eco charging it, not anymore; that had to be because Lora was Channeling all of it away, and her body was beginning to vibrate as she moved, the metal shifting in his hands as it, and her, began to thrum with power.

"On three!" called Daxter, "Move it directly out, if you can! One, two… _three_!"

On three, Jak heaved, and from the look of the piece of Precursor metal it was actually moving. It was _heavy_ , straining his arms even using all of the strength he could Channel from the Red Eco Crystals, and he could see that Lora was straining, struggling to enhance its movement without overloading herself. Her purple eyes were starting to turn indigo with the effort and her face was several shades bluer than normal, with the effort.

"Keep moving," called Daxter, "Easy, easy…whoa! Stop right there!" Lora stopped it, panting with the effort as the Channeling clearly began taking a toll on her, and Jak grimaced, feeling his muscles straining and legs shaking even with the help of the Red Eco to keep the Precursor metal from falling. "Aim it a little down on your end Jak. You're lifting up too much, and you're going to cut a wire if you do that!" called the Ottsel.

Struggling, together Lora and Jak managed to get it into a better position. "Better?" gasped out Lora, as Jak felt his knees starting to buckle with the weight he was holding up.

He gasped for air for a second, feeling the full weight of it on his shoulders and nearly fell to the floor when Blue Eco ran along its length, helping him to move it out.

"Keep going! Keep going, you're almost there!" coached Daxter, and Jak tried hard not to do more than grunt, but he almost felt like screaming, his muscles were straining so hard to keep this thing up.

"You got it!" yelled Daxter, and Lora sucked in a sharp breath "You can put it down now!"

"Jak, follow me," Lora coached, her voice showing the strain if nothing else, "Just-keep moving," ground out Lora, as the Red Eco started to run out "Run, if you have to. I can keep-up!"

Jak didn't see her, but he grunted in acknowledgement, and then he started running over to the free side of the lab. He almost threw the Precursor metal through the side of the Sage's house, and he would have if not for Lora creating this weird traction against the metal moving through currents of Blue Eco.

"Lower it!" yelled Daxter "Before you run out of Eco!"

The two of them slowly lowered it to the floor. Mid-way down, Jak felt something in his arm snap, as if it was elastic, but he gritted his teeth, pushing through the pain. When it was about half an inch from the floor, Jak couldn't hold it any longer, feeling the Red Eco fade, and dropped it. It hit the floor with a BANG, startling both Lora and Jak, who felt like he could barely move.

Precursors, that _hurt_! That hurt more than anything he'd ever done in his life. His arms were aching, and the Red Eco Crystals in his pocket had gone dark. Jak was sure he'd torn something from the shooting, fiery pain in his left arm, and his legs were about to give out. He'd have to Channel Green Eco to fix this. Lora let out something that sounded like a yelp and turned, firing the Blue Eco out the open window and into the air in one, large blast of lightning. She sank to her knees, gasping, hunching forward and panting as the blue tint left her skin.

He hadn't even thought that was possible with any Eco but Yellow, but apparently she could do it with Blue. Jak would have to work with her on this, and see if he could learn how to throw it, too.

"D-Daxter," she coughed "G-get Jak…Green Eco Crystal," she was shaking, and Jak dropped to his knees next to her. His right arm hurt too much to even move, but his left arm was going strangely numb " _Now_ , Daxter…he held that…by himself…" she coughed, shivering as he saw her pupils dilating.

Eco overload, but not Eco poisoning. She'd Channeled so much Eco in the last few moments that she was actually nearly physically sick, and needed to stop before the poisoning set in.

Jak was stunned. She'd Channeled so much Eco in the last…hour, or so, that had she been anyone else, she would have been _dead_. But she was still here, very much alive.

Daxter, for one, did exactly what she said, running over with a Green Eco Crystal. Jak barely had the energy to put his hand on it, but he Channeled, shifting his focus, sighing with relief as the energy washed through him and soothing the aches in his muscles. His left arm's pain vanished slowly as it straightened, feeling returning with a _vengeance_ before all the exhaustion and pain was brushed away by the Green Eco.

Lora was still shaking by the time he'd finished healing, but she looked a little better. Jak climbed over the broken piece of the Warp Gate's fuel pipe to get closer to her, to make sure she wasn't about to collapse, and maybe to offer a Green Eco crystal. When she finally stopped shaking, she took a few deep, gasping breaths, and Jak touched her shoulder, surprised when he got a static shock. He drew back.

She'd Channeled more Eco than most Channelers could, and all of that in a small amount of time. Judging from the last time he'd done that, she would be feeling it for days. But she could clearly still Channel, if she had to-even if that would be really, really hard.

"I'm okay," she said, looking up at him with a tired smile, "I can do this," she said, as the streams of Blue Eco coming from the machine were now visible. She whistled "That's going to be hard to clean. Daxter, you may want to stay clear of the machine for the time being."

"You _don't_ have to say that again!" said Daxter, jumping back onto Jak's shoulder and nearly knocking him off-balance. He glanced at Daxter with a fond smile and shook his head. "There ain't no way you're getting me near _that_ thing while it's sparking like that!"

Lora grimaced, "I wouldn't be planning on it myself if we didn't need to redirect the Blue Eco channels. We need to get into that garage- _tonight_ , if possible. Lurkers will destroy that Zoomer if we leave it overnight," she panted, pushing herself to her feet and swaying a little in place.

Jak leapt to his feet, steadying her and wincing as his newly healed muscles protested the quick movement. She flashed him a grateful smile, and he helped her step over to the machine, leaning against the broken pieces as they stared into it.

"The hardest part of this is done," huffed Lora, still panting "But the rest of it's going to take about three hours to fix. Jak, can you get me closer?" Jak paused; that wasn't a good idea, not in her state. "Look, I've Channeled more than this," she huffed "And not gotten Eco poisoning. I'll be okay to reroute the Eco flows; that's _easy_ compared to what we just did. I'll just need to sleep for 10 hours."

Jak didn't move her closer, setting his mouth and raising an eyebrow at her. She was still trembling, barely able to stand, and insisted she was _still_ able to Channel. _'You're not Channeling that,'_ he told her, communicating as best he could.

Lora sighed, "Jak, you need _two_ Channelers to fix what's wrong with this machine. Not one. Dad rigged it so that only someone very good with Blue Eco or two very powerful Channelers could fix it if it got broken. I…I helped him _build_ it…and I _have to_ help fix it."

"Maybe ya should sit down for a few minutes first!" piped up Daxter, "You look like you're about to keel over on us, and that'd be _really_ bad."

"I'll-be _fine_ ," insisted Lora, "I swear. I did more than this without you here." She looked tired, but she was managing to stand mostly unaided by this point. "I can reroute the Eco flows. Then I'll sit down."

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa_ ," Daxter's voice perfectly synergized with Jak moving in front of her "We're not in a hurry, are we?"

"It's going to be dark soon," huffed Lora, "Dark enough that Lurkers are going to be out. I don't want you losing your Power Cells or Zoomer. We'll _both_ be trapped here if that happens, and we might need you to go back to Sandover with the Zoomer if there are enough parts missing." She took a deep breath, managing to stop trembling "And you better believe I know my own limits. I know how much Eco I can safely channel. I'm the daughter of a Sage," that wasn't a brilliant argument, but it made a point there.

She was right. No one actually knew her limits but Lora, herself. He didn't want to lose his new friend to Eco poisoning, though; she was one of the few people his own age who seemed to understand he wasn't disabled or stupid just because he was mute, after all. And, she was nice, maybe more than that.

Nice enough to trust in and help complete strangers. Of course, she was also desperate enough to try, just because they could help her find her father, but it was nice to have another Channeler around who wasn't afraid of him. Samos and Keira didn't count-they _were_ Channelers. But most kids in Sandover had been told to stay away from Jak from a young age, and Lora had probably had the same problem.

She understood, and she _tried_ , which was a lot more than most people his age ever did for him, aside from Dax, Samos, and Keira. And even Samos had been weirdly distant at times, not that Jak had ever worked out why.

Jak nodded to her, mind made up, and stepped aside, helping her make her way to the machine. Lora put her hand on top of what had to be the power source, but Jak wasn't about to let her do this alone-even if she did know her limits, she could use the help. He put his hand over hers, and when she looked back at him, clearly startled, he smiled at her and nodded again.

He wasn't at his limit, either.

"All right. Jak, I need you to follow my lead," coached Lora, and then he felt the Eco in the machine _surge_ , trying to flow out into the room "We need to reroute the Eco flows into the other pipes. I can't repair the other pipes right now, but all we need is to straighten one pipe. Just follow my lead."

And follow it he did, knowing she had more experience with Blue Eco than he likely ever would. It wasn't long before he found himself concentrating, trying to mimic what she was doing with Blue Eco and almost failing-for him, he had to _force_ it, a few times, just to get it to help un-bend the pipe. And there was also the chance that the Eco leak would spring, which they were working to prevent.

"Daxter, keep an eye on that pipe for me," Lora said, "if it looks like it's getting clogged, tell us. It'll start throwing off sparks."

"You betcha, Lore," said Daxter, saluting her from where Jak could see him.

Lora held onto her control and everything else she had, he could _feel_ it, as she coaxed the Eco back into the pipes. It was natural for her-and it might have been. After fighting the flows, but finding very little success, Jak shifted his focus and tried to coax it instead. He found it astonishingly easy; Samos had always taught he had to force it, but maybe the Sage was wrong. Samos had always been the foremost expert on it, though, so how could he have gotten this so wrong?

The Blue Eco flowed and filled in the cracks, easily sealing the crack in its own piping, and the rerouted Eco seemed to widen the pipes, making them flow more efficiently-without taking away from the thickness of the original pipe.

Jak didn't understand how it all worked, but when he felt Lora slowly release her hold on the Blue Eco, he did the same, as slowly as he dared. They kept going as Daxter had shouted no warning, and when they finally let it loose completely, Jak heard something whir to life. Lora slumped against the newly-repaired smaller machine, a tired, but triumphant laugh leaving her mouth.

"We did it," she said breathlessly, sinking to the floor wearily "Oh, Precursors. It's a mess, but it'll work until we get the tools out of the garage to fix it."

Jak didn't feel nearly as weak as she did, but he hadn't Channeled as much as she had. The strain of Channeling so much Blue Eco had drained her energy reserves, and she was panting, but smiling as she sat back against the machine, near the maintenance hole. Jak knelt down next to her, scanning her for any visible injuries aside from the over-straining of her Channeling.

But in all honesty, she was still more effective. Jak resolved that he would try to use her method to Channel Blue Eco, though not without asking her about it first, or having Daxter ask for it. It wasn't really the same as Samos had taught him, but could it really cause him to have Eco poisoning? Samos had always taught him to make it work with him; but that didn't work here. Lora had proved that.

"I'm fine," she huffed, "Tired, probably need some…some water, but…" she laughed "We did it. Now if we get a few more wires reconnected," she started to get up, but Jak pushed her back down, shaking his head.

He glanced at Daxter; _'Can you make sure she stays here?'_ he asked through a series of gestures and signals. _'I'm going to go get her some water.'_

"Sure thing, Jak!" Daxter hopped up onto Lora's knee, "You heard him. You're staying here until you've gotten some water and a little bit of rest! Even for a Channeler, that was _insane_. Here, I'll tell you any story you want-free of charge!"

"Free of charge, huh?" panted Lora, from where she leant against the machine. "Sure. Tell me…tell me…"

Jak picked up the nearest Blue Eco crystal and headed for the Precursor-designed lift for the place they _actually_ lived and slept, leaving Daxter and Lora to talk, smiling a little when he heard her asking about how Dax had turned into an Ottsel. It didn't take him long to power up the lift and make it to her kitchen, and a little bit of searching turned up a set of cups, the same as the ones they'd drank water out of earlier today.

He returned downstairs with three cups of water, to find Daxter telling a ridiculous story to keep Lora entertained, "So there we were, Jak and I, on Misty Island! We just wanted to get home, but we got a little lost," and then Jak froze, knowing _exactly_ what story Daxter was telling. "And we were surprised by a Lurker-you know, one of the really big, mean ones that wears a bone helmet. It was swinging its club, and it was gonna kill us, I swear! I tried to fight it, but it didn't do much-I just really pissed it off. It kept coming at us and I kept ducking and dodging," Lora just patiently nodded, "Then Jak-he just picked up that same piece of Precursor junk that didn't work for me, and it lit up."

Lora chuckled, "Really? He didn't seem the type." Jak stayed still, hoping neither of them realized he was there, because he wanted to know what Daxter would say.

He'd always wondered if Daxter blamed him for getting turned into an Ottsel. It wasn't like Jak could just ask him and trust Dax to tell him, either-his friend kept all of his hurts close to his chest and it was like pulling teeth to get Daxter to say _anything_ when he was really upset. So he stayed still, perfectly inert, thankful that the lift had stopped moving but Lora wasn't tracking its movement.

"Yeah, well Jak just picks it up, and _throws_ it when the thing starts towards us again. And like I said, it was _majorly_ pissed off. I swear, I didn't know it would blow up! He didn't look like he knew it would, either," yelped Daxter, "But it did and Jak and I were both thrown backwards. He hit me, because I was standing behind him after dodging. So see, he knocked into me, and I went flying backwards into the Dark Eco. And I came flying back out after the Lurker was dead, two feet tall, furry, and _missing_ pants! Precursors, I miss pants."

Lora nodded, "And I presume hiding behind Jak didn't have another reason?" Daxter frowned at her and she smirked, shaking her head. "You remind me of my friend Aconite a little. She's stuck in the Swamp to the West."

Daxter grinned "Is she like me?"

"Oh, I think you two have a lot in common," said Lora with a quiet chuckle. "You got lucky, and so did she, in more ways than one. Dark Eco should have killed you. It probably _would_ kill her."

"I know, I know; Old Green Stuff always says the same thing," Daxter brushed it off, but there was something in his voice that said he believed it this time. "So yeah, that's how I became the Ottsel riding on Jak's shoulder-which is a nice perch! It's just tall enough for me to see without being too tall. And y'know, I don't really blame Jak," Daxter finished "I blame that stupid Lurker and those weird Elves we saw."

Jak felt awkward enough listening to the conversation then, but his worst fear proved to be-groundless. Absolutely groundless now that he thought about it, hearing those words from Daxter. He had to take a moment to hide the fierce relief that burned in his chest, feeling forgiven for turning Daxter into an Ottsel more easily than ever. Tears stung his eyes, but he stayed still, blinking, until they'd gone away.

Then he stepped off the lift, walking over to Lora and Daxter, purposely stepping on one of the creaky floorboards to let them know he was there.

Sneaking up on Keira never ended well. SHe tended to throw things, and more than once she'd nailed Jak in the head or side with a wrench. With Lora trained in martial arts and as good of a Channeler as he was, Jak was willing to bet that sneaking up on her would end even worse than sneaking up on Keira.

Lora's eyes snapped up to meet his and again, Jak was struck by how _different_ they were. He'd never in his life seen, met, or heard of an Elf born with bright violet eyes, but there was one sitting right in front of him. And with her shock-white, spiky hair and skin that reminded him of the color of chocolate, she really stood out.

"Jak," greeted Daxter, as Jak knelt down "What took you so long, buddy? I thought you'd gotten lost up there!"

Jak shrugged silently and handed Lora the water. She accepted it with a grateful, silent smile and a nod, as he gestured _'had to look for cups,'_ seeming to understand him. That was weird, but not that weird; Daxter had picked up how he talked to people within a few weeks.

And Lora still didn't quite get the more complex parts of it, which probably meant she was guessing.

After finishing off her cup of water, she noticed Jak holding out a second one. He'd thought she would really need it, and from the way she took it and sucked it down like she was dying of thirst, she did. Jak sucked down his own cup of water, leaving Daxter to nudge him in the knee.

When Jak looked down at Daxter, the Ottsel winked at him and jumped onto his shoulder "I like her," he whispered into Jak's ear. "She matched me with that same sarcasm you have when you get going."

Jak smiled, setting down the cups, and looked to Lora for directions. To his surprise, the water seemed to restore some color to her, not that he could tell in the dim lighting or with her skin color. Still, she didn't look nearly as dizzy and she wasn't shaking anymore.

"Now for the easy part," said Lora, looking at both of them. "Daxter, I'm going to need your help, again-you're small enough to fit into places Jak and I can't." With effort, she got to her feet, and Jak joined her, putting the cups aside. "Okay, Jak, I'm going to need you to do most of the Channeling from here on out. It's going to be pretty simple stuff, but I also need help getting the last few pieces of Precursor metal out of the machine. It's mostly working, but the lift won't start with the fuel line compromised. Daxter, how well do you follow directions?"

Lora looked at both of them when she asked, though, and Daxter retorted "Hey! I'm perfectly good at following directions!"

Jak snorted, shaking his head. _'When have you EVER followed directions?'_ he asked, and Daxter pouted.

"I can _so_ follow directions if someone's Zoomer is on the line!" pointed out Daxter, and Jak shook his head, grinning to himself. "Besides, I'm the only one for this job. You heard the lady, Jak! How can I not?"

Lora raised an eyebrow "Has either of you seen something blow up because of carelessness?" both of them nodded, Jak more emphatically than Daxter.

He'd wrecked a Zoomer (one that had had some faulty wiring) his first time out, and the thing had blown up on him. From the way Samos had fussed over him for a week, he'd been lucky to be alive after that. Jak knew firsthand what carelessness could do.

"Heck yeah we do! Jak here got really badly hurt as a kid when some jerk challenged him to a Zoomer race and then gave him a Zoomer that hadn't been used for _years_!" yeah, Daxter probably remembered that better than Jak himself did, since he'd been mostly unconscious. "You're sayin' this has a chance of blowing up?"

"Not-catastrophically, but yeah," agreed Lora, walking somewhat unsteadily over to the desk with the cups and moving them out of the way to reveal a leather-bound journal. "This is my father's design journal, with blueprints of each machine in the lab and his workshop," she explained when Jak joined her, and Dax peered over her shoulder.

The designs were unfamiliar, but the labeling was even more of a surprise. Jak hadn't expected her to label things with these weird squiggly things that looked _almost_ like writing, but not quite. It was more of a design for each one, each of them with markedly different edges.

But why? It somewhat resembled the Ancient Language, the language of the Precursors that Jak had learned to speak at Samos' knee, but not enough for him to understand it.

"Okay," said Lora, clapping her hands and turning back to them "I think I know what we need to do. Daxter, I need you to creep back into the machine and reconnect the wires I tell you to near the big pumps. Jak, since you can still Channel without getting sick," he almost smiled then, feeling better about the situation. "I need you to get the rest of the Precursor shards out of the machine using Red Eco Crystals," she handed him several of the things, surprising him.

How many of these things did she have? They didn't just lie around for people to _take_ ; they were usually in really, _really_ dangerous areas. He stared at her, mouth open in shock as he counted _six_ Red Eco Crystals on his hand.

"Dad figured out how to create Eco Crystals a long time ago," explained Lora quietly, "He worked with Agni, the Red Sage, to make those. They're really close-well, when I say close," she amended "I mean Dad doesn't dismiss him on sight or techno-babble around him to get Agni to leave him alone."

Jak had heard Samos complain several times about the Blue Sage and his inability to focus and stop babbling about some new contraption every time they met. He'd only overheard it because Samos would complain to his plants, and occasionally he'd heard the older Elf muttering about the Blue Sage being 'not right in the head,' but Jak hadn't ever really put it together.

Why would he babble like that? Why not act like he was really sane, if he was?

Lora smiled "Dad doesn't like talking to people who pester him for information. From what I've picked up of his journals, the Green Sage only bothers him a little bit, while he can't stand the Yellow Sage and has actually rigged several of everything around him to explode. To be honest, I think it might be his attitude that bugs Dad, but I don't know."

Daxter piped up "Yeah, I've heard about it! Something Big Green was muttering the other day, in fact. He muttered that we'd better not run into the Blue and Yellow Sages in the same room or there'd be a bloodbath!" Daxter frowned "I thought Sages were supposed to be peaceful?"

Lora chuckled "Dad may be a pacifist, but that doesn't mean he won't respond to a threat or protect people if he doesn't have to. It just means that violence is the last option, not the first one, he uses."

Oh. That made sense, now that Jak thought about it. And it was wise, too, just like the Sages were reputed to be. Judging by the state of the lab, it was clear the Blue Sage wasn't pacifistic when it came to responding to threats to his family, which Jak could only be grateful for, since it meant he got to meet Lora now, instead of having to save her, or worse, finding out she'd been killed.

That didn't make a lot of sense with what he'd learned about pacifism, but he decided not to question it. It was possible her dad was a pacifist only by reputation.

Daxter nodded, looking impressed "Ya know, I think I like yer dad much better than Old Green stuff. At least he seems cool."

Lora chuckled "Yeah, he's pretty cool," she sobered almost instantly, and Jak winced, seeing the black shadow cross her face. "Come on," she straightened, "Jak, I need you to get the Precursor pieces out of the machine. Daxter, come here," she directed, her voice a little duller.

Jak felt pretty low, seeing how she looked at him after what Daxter had said. He should've said something, or tried to gesture an apology, and he hadn't. He really, _really_ wished he had.

With a quiet sigh, Jak estimated the size of the pieces, recalling how heavy the first one had been, and slipped all but one of the Red Eco Crystals into his pocket. The last one, he started Channeling from, feeling the Eco fill his body with new strength.

Determined now, he walked towards the Precursor metal that had embedded itself in the folds of the machine. Jak's real hope, as Daxter darted by him, was that there were no shards that deeply embedded in the machine, or they'd have a really hard time fixing it.

He could hardly believe it. It had taken them only _three hours_ to fix a machine that by rights should have taken _days_ to fix. If it had been Keira working, the machine would've been fixed in two or three days, but she'd have needed a lot more help. Jak found himself gaping at Lora, who'd been giving Dax and Jak orders for the first hour and a half and then joined them in fixing the machine, giving a new meaning to the term 'grease monkey' since she'd had her hands everywhere in the lift engine's innermost workings.

She'd even gotten deep into the wires, having Jak redirect the power from the ones she was repairing, and put together a few replacement panels to hold them up.

And now it was working. Sort of. The machine was repaired, but it might not work the way they needed it to. Jak doubted it would, mostly since Keira's inventions tended to fail the first two or three times through, and he was pretty darn impressed. He just wasn't willing to be within the blast range-and usually, neither was Keira.

Lora was confident, however, and strode over to the computer, ignoring the symbols that flashed across the screen as she flipped a lever and pressed one of the large green buttons on the side. If it blew, she was in the blast zone, and Jak couldn't get to her.

"And-done!" said Lora, grinning triumphantly "We did it! This should work now." Then she turned to Jak "And better yet, we're almost standing on the lift!"

Almost? Did that mean he was on the edge? And what if it went down with him on it? What if it didn't work, like Keira's first attempt at fixing her Zoomer?

"What the heck does _that_ mean, anyway?" Daxter asked. After the first two hours, Dax had gotten hungry, but they hadn't stopped so he was a bit cranky. "I need _food_ , not this crappy lift!"

"Relax, we're five or six feet from it," said Lora, gesturing out the open window.

Jak looked out the window, mostly out of curiosity, and was startled to find a glowing, large Precursor-metal platform sitting there innocently outside the window. Lora took a running leap out the window, landing neatly on the platform and gestured for him to join her. Daxter quickly jumped onto his shoulder and Jak joined her, landing on the platform right before it started moving.

"Nice timing," Lora said, as the platform turned, floating down and twisting around the house, heading towards the cliff face nearby.

"You're _sure_ this leads to a –whoa!" yelped Daxter as a part of the cliff face shifted aside, revealing a passageway guarded by a Blue Eco shield.

No, it couldn't be-there was _no way_ , but he didn't have a chance to touch it to find out.

Jak could barely believe his eyes. The workshop was _huge_ , and covered in a giant blue shield of solid Eco, if that was possible. Glimmering blue sparks existed within the semi-transparent shield of what seemed to be light, but had to be Eco.

The shield deactivated as soon as the platform came close to touching it, and reactivated as soon as the platform passed through it. From this side it looked just like the other one, except then he heard the crackling of Eco from up ahead and the sight of something like a loaded bow and arrow system with several arrows aimed at them. They deactivated as Lora knelt down on the platform, touching a segment of it, and she stood up again.

Sheesh, who guarded their _workshop_ this closely? Jak had never seen these precautions anywhere in his life. Not even the traps set in the local Forbidden Temple had been this elaborate.

After that, they were lifted a little higher into the canyon created, which led into a deck-like spot that jutted out, made of stone instead of wood, from the canyon's abrupt end in front of him. Jak followed Lora onto the deck-like piece of stone, and onto the side, which didn't seem to lead anywhere.

Why would she lead them here? There was nothing _here_. Nothing at all. Jak frowned, confused and tensing, as she might have led them here for some other reason.

"This is _it_? Seriously?" Daxter asked, looking around in disbelief.

"No, that's not it," said Lora, walking forward to the center of the platform and reaching down with her fingertips. She pressed down a portion of the stone, and they were moving again. "This is," she said, as they were lifted high into the air, well above the cliff face and into the dark clouds.

They should have been struck by lightning, or at the very least grown soaking wet, but they weren't. Instead, there was a glittering, solid shield surrounding them, a shield of what looked like light and Blue Eco, protecting them from the elements. Jak could barely see it, but he could _feel_ it twisting around the platform they were riding, up into a circular, floating place with a hole in its floor.

The platform they were riding on lifted them through the shield, the two passing through each other and the smaller shield vanishing as they did so. As they were lifted into place, Jak felt his jaw drop, because this? This was _impossible_.

The workshop was a massive, wide open space with Blue Eco-light shielding for at least ten feet into the air if not higher-no, at least _twenty_ , clearly self-fueled and self-contained, with several machines all over the place. He could sense a Blue Eco vent powering the whole array, though how that was possible he wasn't sure, since it was being drawn in from the skies around them, somehow. Jak flinched as a lightning bolt hit the shield, only to be absorbed into it, blue lightning crackling through it and funneling the power into the glowing Precursor metal that kept this workshop afloat.

 **(Quick note: You all KNOW the Blue Sage is a mechanical genius. I may have expanded on that a lot here. Assuming he's studied Blue Eco for a very long time and that Sages live longer lives than normal people, he's had a very long time in learning how to manipulate it. I also assume he has a daughter and is motivated to protect her from his own enemies, which he's had prior warning about in this particular version of the Jak and Daxter universe. If Gol and Maia had time to rework the Precursor-inspired Citadel they have in canon, then this is a believable stretch.)**

It was incredible. He'd never seen anything like it. No one had managed to make things like this _float_ , much less create shielding this advanced, that he'd ever met. The workshop was easily the size of the Forbidden Temple, wide and stretching into different, divided sections away from where the lift had affixed itself. He didn't want to look down, but as he stepped off the lift, onto the actual Precursor metal, it was like he was standing on the ground.

The only difference was that the air smelled and tasted of ozone.

Lora turned to grin at him "So, what do you think?"

"Oh…my… _Precursors_!" yelled Daxter, and Jak winced. "Sorry," he patted Jak's hair with one of his hands "Where the _heck_ are we? Are we _floating_?"

"Welcome to my dad's-and my-workshop," said Lora, stepping off the platform they'd used to get here. "He made it back before I was born. It's self-fueled, so the place will run on its own indefinitely, possibly for centuries if we leave it alone. It runs on Blue Eco, not Power Cells, but that's because Dad's a genius."

 **AAAANNDD CUT! I'm sorry this took me so long, guys-I actually lost my way when it came to writing Lora, since I started overthinking her. I tried to break a mold and instead did something different when it came to writing her; I also forgot (temporarily) how to write a teenager. Which is really, really hard, when you're not writing someone similar to yourself. Lora is a bit closer to my opposite, which is making molding her super difficult.**

 **Anyway, enough of my griping. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get here. Next chapter will be up sooner (I hope)!**


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